I've walked most of the Appalachian Trail...its ups and downs are a lot like life. I love life, but EMT work has taught me that life is uncertain for us all. Let's talk about how to make the world work. There's lots of people who've got to live with what we leave behind.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Undocumented Immigrants - They're Great!

One of the biggest jokes in the American political scene is the republicans ranting about undocumented "illegal" immigrants. The rants would lead one to believe they are totally against having these people around. The reality is that they love them and want nothing to change. These "illegals" are good for them, and good for the country, too. Why?, one might ask.

Here are a few facts to consider. Illegals are cheap, they work hard, and they can't be in a union. Illegals can't file for worker's compensation, they don't get health care benefits, and they do work that almost all native-born Americans believe is below them. Consequently, prices of the things illegals help create, such as agricultural and meat products, construction, and restaurant/hotel services are cheaper than they would otherwise be. The cheaper prices allow more sales and more profits. What could be sweeter! It's a republican's dream.

The democrats, however, want to legalize these illegals. Why? So they can be in unions, be eligible for health care, worker's comp, social security and other benefits, and thereby become more expensive. This would result in them becoming less competitive with regular American workers and, at a minimum, raise the "floor" wages for all unskilled or low-skilled jobs. A large number of legalized illegals would become voting democrats, at least in the first generation. Democrats wouldn't mind if new illegals were kept out of the U.S., however; fewer of them means less competition and maybe we have enough already.

Republicans and democrats with any sense agree that it's impossible to send the illegals back to their home countries. Our economy couldn't stand the loss of so many workers, nor could we deport so many people without risking social chaos. Moreover, "regular" Americans aren't creating enough children to populate the work force we will need in the future, and the illegals are doing a fine job of this. So, both parties want to keep the immigrants - they just want to deal with them differently.

Populist shills like Lou Dobbs love to count the "cost" of the illegals. They cry about the cost of educating the kids, the emergency room visits, the crime, and the "lost" social security revenue. Fuggetaboutit! The approximately 10 million illegals in the U.S. create far more wealth than they cost our economy, and our standard of living would take a big hit if they left or were suddenly legalized and given competitive wages and benefits.

The bottom line is that the illegals are here to stay regardless of which political party wins the presidency in the fall. No politician would ever say in public that the illegals are good for us, but few of them are serious about changing the status quo in a dramatic way. My view is that these immigrants are doing us a lot of good, and we owe the "good actor" illegals a chance to get citizenship on a reasonable basis. At the same time, I wouldn't mind if we got a lot better at policing our borders.

The one thing that never seems to get mentioned is that it would cost A LOT of money to find and deport even more illegals than we already do. At some point (that we're probably already pass), this cost far outweighs the benefits.

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